“...and whoever gives even a cup of cold water…” Matthew 10:42

Recently I spent several hours as a patient in the emergency room of a city hospital. I was not in imminent danger of death, and I did not come to the hospital in an ambulance, so I ranked fairly low on the priority list of the medical staff, and rightly so. I was, however, in some considerable pain as my tear-streaked face made clear to all who passed. No cubicles were available to me, so I sat on a gurney in a busy hallway, watching the staff pass me by for several hours before I received pain medication.

Needless to say, I’ve had better nights. In the midst of the painful waiting, however, God showed up in the person of a young woman, an EMT by the badge on her jacket. She probably brought someone to the ER in her ambulance and was now walking through my hallway on the way out. She undoubtedly had much on her mind and important work to do. But she saw the pain in my face, and though she did not work in the ER, she took a moment to stop and ask me if I was going to be all right. She told me to hold on, that someone would help me. She gently touched my shoulder and looked in my eyes. She made a difference with a small gift: a touch, a word of comfort. Small gifts count!

Rochelle A. Stackhouse is the Senior Minister of The Church of the Redeemer, United Church of Christ, New Haven Connecticut.

God is still speaking,